


where you don't see me

by artimiscrock (e_katara), e_katara



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: (it's pretty minor but it is there), Character Study, Comic Book Violence, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, idk! idk what tags are! idk what tropes this has!, we're just here to talk about ed as a character and also show him falling in love. that's it kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-08-11 03:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20146666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/e_katara/pseuds/artimiscrock, https://archiveofourown.org/users/e_katara/pseuds/e_katara
Summary: Joining the Outsiders is an impulse decision.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> heh. impulse decision.
> 
> anyways this chapter is just ed joining the team rly, we don't kick it into the bart stuff until the next chapter. please bear with me!!
> 
> big thanks to riotwlw on tumblr for beta reading this!! sorry i sent like 50 versions i'm just indecisive

When it comes down to it, joining the Outsiders is an impulse decision.

The idea starts after the funeral. Hearing Bart and Jaime talk about the team, the change they're trying to effect, it sticks in his mind. He thinks, _I wouldn't mind being a part of something like that_.

But what really clinches it is seeing Virgil hug Bart. He really can't tell why, but he's got a gut feeling that joining the Outsiders is the right thing to do. He's kind of making up his reasoning for joining the team on the spot, but as he says it, he realizes that it feels right. The feeling settles in his chest and he knows that this is something that he _has_ to do.

The downside of it being an impulse decision, of course, is that he hasn't really thought about what that's going to mean for him, the ways his life is going to change.

And there are _so_. _Many_. _Changes_. Some of them he's kind of expecting, but most of them catch him way, way off guard.

For example, he's a superhero. Like, officially. That means he needs combat training - he's got a handle on his abilities now, but he has almost no experience with using them in a fight. Or fighting at all, really. (Sure, he and the other kids from STAR had that thing with Red Volcano, and the stuff on the War World, but those were special circumstances, and they barely got out alive both times.) So, to start, he spends four hours a week in the training room. (They're starting him off easy, apparently. Most of them train in one on one combat for at least eight hours a week.) Sometimes he's working with Tigress, sometimes Miss Martian, sometimes other members of the Outsiders. It's exhausting, and he's fallen down more times than he can count, but at least there's always a friendly hand to help him back up.

(It's a simple gesture, but it means a lot to him. Every single person there has his back, and… it really makes him feel like part of the team.)

And the fact that he's part of a _team_ now - that's new.

Sure, he'd spent a few months with the runaways, but they weren't really a team, not in the same sense. They were a bunch of kids whose main goal was self preservation. All they wanted was not to be forced to go back - not to STAR, not to the Reach. There was no desire to fight, just to be safe and to mess with the Reach in their own little ways. When it came down to it, the runaways were always more of a family than a team.

So joining a team - a super team, at that - is an entirely new experience for him, and he has a really hard time finding his footing. For one thing, there's a surprising amount of studying - learning all their maneuvers, looking at the history of the league and the team, researching some of the big bads they've gone up against. M'gann tells him he's gotta do some reading before he can actually train with the team.

(He doesn't really see the point, at first. He says as much to Jaime and Virgil one day, and Jaime rolls his eyes and says something about freshmen never doing their homework. Ed grumbles, then gets back to reading.)

When he's finally read up enough, he sits in on a couple of team training sessions, watching how they work, thinking about ways to use his powers for combat situations. It feels like an awful lot of hoops to jump through just to join them in practice, but when he finally jumps into the fray with him, he starts to get it. Their training is no joke - even with all his research, he still gets his ass kicked. A lot. But he also manages to kick some asses himself, so he's pretty proud.

Team training is at least eight hours a week. Usually, they're running simulations - he's not sure how the tech works, but there's this big, fancy room that lets them run through simulated battles with different villains or teams. Sometimes, though, a couple of members of the Justice League will show up to give them a fight. They get their butts handed to them, repeatedly, but they also manage to hold their own a little bit better every time.

(The more they all train together, the more it becomes clear that he and Bart work well as a team. Their powers complement each other's, and they seem to be able to anticipate each other's moves pretty well - they're still clumsy, they don't quite succeed at all the things they try, but they usually hit pretty close to the mark. He thinks about that a lot.)

The better they get, the more it sinks in. He's a superhero. He's on a team of superheroes. He's going to save people. The world is going to be watching him. He wants to be a role model, an inspiration, and he has a chance to do that now.

He's not sure he'll ever quite get used to that.

There are also, of course, the changes he sees coming a mile away.

His dad is extremely reluctant to let Ed join the team. He spends three days trying to talk him out of it, telling him, at length, how unprepared he is, how dangerous it is. He also pulls up a few videos of heroes from the League getting thrown around, including one where Flash's arm gets broken real bad. Like, _bone sticking out of the skin_ bad. It's pretty gruesome, but Ed isn't going to let that scare him. Much.

It takes a lot of negotiating between him, his dad, and Kaldur and M'gann to figure out an arrangement that they can all agree on so that he can join up. In addition to training, he has to do chores, eat three square meals a day, have a curfew of eleven o'clock, and he can't give up on his education, meaning he needs tutoring, twice a week. And, finally, he has to go home on weekends. That was something his dad had absolutely refused to budge on.

(And maybe he doesn't push back on that one, much. He might get a little homesick sometimes, but he doesn't think anyone needs to know that.)

Most of those rules are pretty loosely enforced - the only adult supervision they have most of the time is Doctor Jace, who isn't exactly the most attentive person. He can get away with not always doing his chores on time, and he does, on occasion, have ice cream for dinner. The curfew is the most strictly enforced rule they've got, and even that can be avoided pretty easily if they want.

The one thing he can't avoid is the tutoring. They've all got to get an education, and while Violet, Tara, and Forager can all just go to a regular high school, the rest of them are a bit too visible for that. So they get a couple of tutors - one for Vic, Jaime, Brion, and Virgil, and another for Ed, Cassie, Bart, and Gar.

The tutors show up on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and they stay for five hours. It's not too bad, all things considered - they don't have homework, they get to work together a lot, and it's a pretty laid back learning environment. It's still school, but it's nowhere near as bad as it could be.

So, Ed's got a whole lot on his plate now, and more eyes on him than ever before, and he's definitely feeling the pressure.

And yet.

He's also so much freer than he's been in years.

He's living with a bunch of his friends in a super fancy, tricked out tower. It's got as many video games as a teenager could want, hooked up to a huge flat-screen, complete with a state of the art sound system. There's also a gym, a full size pool, a basketball court, and an arcade. Plus a fully stocked kitchen, and almost no actual adult supervision.

So if you ask him, his life is pretty sweet right now. He's got a lot of things he has to do, but he's definitely making it work.

There is one slight problem, though.

His name is Bart Allen.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Gar insists that they need to start having team bonding sessions, they're all a little hesitant. They're not sure what, exactly, he means, but they all immediately think of those corny trust exercises that adults do at like, corporate retreats or whatever. But. He is the unofficial team leader - it was his idea, after all, and he may not be the oldest person on the team, but he's definitely been in the hero game the longest. So, despite their concerns, they agree.
> 
> It doesn't take long for them to realize that he mostly just meant that they should all play video games together.
> 
> There’s a collective sigh of relief. None of them were really looking forward to the idea of doing like, trust falls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this has been almost done for like a week but i kept chickening out of posting it. anyways big thanks again to @riotwlw on tumblr for being super nice and letting me bounce ideas off of them and beta-reading this!!!
> 
> anyways.. i love the outsiders! theyre a bunch of stupid kids and i could not possibly be more proud of them. i hope u enjoy me just. writing a bunch of them being dumb and goofy.

It takes him awhile to even notice it happening, really.

When Gar insists that they need to start having team bonding sessions, they're all a little hesitant. They're not sure what, exactly, he means, but they all  immediately think of those corny trust exercises that adults do at like, corporate retreats or whatever. But. He  _ is _ the unofficial team leader - it was his idea, after all, and he may not be the oldest person on the team, but he's definitely been in the hero game the longest. So, despite their concerns, they agree.

It doesn't take long for them to realize that he mostly just meant that they should all play video games together.

There’s a collective sigh of relief. None of them were really looking forward to the idea of doing like, trust falls.

"I swear I won't use my speed. Scout's honor."

Virgil rolls his eyes. "Bart, you were never a scout."

"It's semantics," Bart says, waving his hand dismissively.

“It’s really not.”

Ed sits back on the couch, watching the argument unfold with a grin. This happens every time they play games - someone (usually Virgil or Brion) reminds everyone that Bart's super-speed gives him an unfair advantage, and he swears up and down that he's not going to use it. He only ever lasts like, fifteen minutes.

(They've actually started timing him - the longest he's gone without using his speed was twenty three minutes and fourteen seconds.) 

(Everyone places bets on how long it'll take - winner gets their chores done for them for a week. Somehow, Cassie almost always wins.) 

(No one can figure out how, but they’re pretty sure she cheats.)

Bart is pleading his case to the court - Gar and Jaime, this time - and Ed can't help but grin. He’s currently accusing Virgil of making baseless attacks on his character and attempting to use cheap political tricks. It makes absolutely no sense, but that doesn't seem to matter.

Cassie drops down on the couch next to Ed and nudges him with her elbow, leaning in with a conspiratorial grin. "Bart and I marathoned some Law & Order last night to prepare for this," she whispers.

Ed chokes on a laugh, turning it into a fake cough when Bart, Jaime, and Gar turn to look at him. Bart gives him a small smile before returning to his emphatic speech on the fundamental human right that is freedom of video gaming.

"I think your research paid off," Ed mutters back, "he's throwing a lot of fancy words around. You guys do know they're just going to cave and let him play though, right?"

She shrugs. "I mean, yeah, but isn't this more fun?"

Ed chuckles, watching Bart argue animatedly with Virgil, who's barely biting back a smile. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

Cassie glances from Ed to Bart and back again a couple of times before landing on Ed, brow arched.

It seems like she’s trying to ask him a question, but Ed can’t figure out what it is. 

"What?"

She nudges him again and waggles her eyebrows, throwing a meaningful look at Bart. Ed's still not sure what she's trying to say, so he just shrugs. She sighs, exasperated, and Ed would apologize if he knew what the hell just happened, but he shrugs and turns back to the spectacle.

And that's the thing about Bart.

He's always a spectacle.

He's like - it's weird, Ed thinks, but Bart's presence is kind of like... a gas, almost. That whole rule about how it fills the volume of whatever container it's in He does the exact same thing. No matter where he goes, he fills the space around him.

(Okay, so they've been reviewing physics in tutoring. He can't help it if reading that definition reminded him of Bart.)

He's currently pacing back and forth in front of Gar and Jaime, hamming it up, saying something about isolation from his peers and damaging team morale. Jaime is trying very, very hard not to laugh, but he’s not really succeeding. Meanwhile, Gar is only barely keeping a straight face. He waits for Bart to pause to take a breath to jump in.

"Okay! Okay. We concede. You can play. But normal rules still apply. You use super-speed, you're out of here."

Bart nods eagerly and very solemnly swears that he definitely won’t use his powers this time.

Fifteen minutes later, he and Ed are facing off in Super Smash Brothers - Bart, unsurprisingly, is playing Sonic, and Ed's playing as Palutena. Bart is carefully avoiding using his super-speed, but he's still better at this game than Ed, who's more of a Mario Kart guy. Sonic knocks Palutena off the platform four times, but she gets him back twice, and Ed feels proud of himself for not spectacularly failing.

Three minutes later, Bart has been banned and is sitting in a - Ed doesn't know what it's called. It's smaller than a couch but bigger than a chair - across the room, grinning and unapologetic. He and Sonic had faced off against Gar and the Pokemon Trainer, and he'd pretty quickly slipped into using superspeed. Gar was demolished and Bart was kicked off the couch.

Ed isn't playing right now, and he's kind of bored, so he goes and takes the space next to Bart, who turns to give him a warm, lazy smile.

Ed doesn't really know what to say. He blurts out "Why do you always insist on playing if you know you're gonna wind up using your speed?" and immediately wants to bite his tongue.

_ Stupid question, Ed. Stupid, stupid question. _

Bart looks at him, considering. He seems to come to some kind of conclusion and leans in like he's about to share something very confidential, and oh, his face is very close, and his eyes are serious in a way Ed hasn’t seen before. "Are you sure you want the answer to that?"

Ed can't breathe. "Yeah," he says, swallowing thickly.

Bart hums, thoughtful. "I can control myself, if I really want to," his says, lips quirking up, "but it's fun, pretending I can't. Everyone gets a kick out of it." He leans back into the seat, "I guess I like making people laugh. It's, uh - I didn't really... have that. For a really long time. So, now, I like making it happen.” He seems to shake himself a bit, dropping the seriousness for something a bit closer to his usual demeanor, loose and easygoing. “And I can't say that I don't also like the attention,” he says, shrugging.

Ed studies Bart, who's wearing a self deprecating smile, and there's something behind his eyes that churns Ed's stomach, but he can't figure out what it is. Ed realizes that there's a lot more to Bart than he thought - that he really doesn't know him very well. Even though they've lived together for like, a month, and they work really well as a team, that doesn't translate to… to knowing him.

He thinks about that for a minute, not sure why that realization makes him feel so uneasy.

And then Bart decides to play commentator, and he’s too distracted to keep thinking about it. 

"With this match we see Pac-Man versus Luigi. This is, of course, a grudge match - Mrs. Pac-Man caused a scandal just last month, divorcing her husband to pursue a relationship with Luigi, his long-time rival in the ghost hunting business!” he says, voice lowered his voice in an attempt to imitate a sports commentator, “What will win out? Luigi's raw charisma and unbridled power, or Pac-Man’s revenge fueled blood-lust?” 

Ed is clutching his stomach, laughing, as Cassie and Virgil egg Bart on.

"Luigi is shacking up with Mrs. Pac-Man?" Virgil asks, pressing a hand to his chest like an old southern lady clutching at her pearls.

"Oh, no, he wouldn't. He's a classy man, Virg. He's not going to get with his rival's ex, no matter how in love she is. He's already in a relationship, anyways," Bart replies easily, and Ed marvels, because he has no idea how Bart comes up with this stuff so quickly.

Cassie covers her mouth with a hand and gasps, scandalized. "The drama! Luigi is in a secret relationship? Who with? Zelda?"

Bart shakes his head, somber.

"Bayonetta?" Virgil asks.

Another head shake.

"It's the Wii Fit Trainer, isn't it?" Ed says, accusing, "I always knew she was trying to get at the legendary Super Mario Brothers' fortune."

That surprises a laugh out of Bart, but he quickly schools his expression back into something faux-serious.

(Ed feels a giddy sort of pride at having made him laugh. He maybe sees what Bart was talking about earlier.)

"She did make a pass at him, Ed, but no. You're all missing the obvious," Bart tells them, matter of fact. "He's married to Bowser. They're raising the koopalings together and they're very, very happy."

Virgil sighs, heavily. "You're right, Bart. We’re fools. We should have seen the signs!" He shakes his head, looking ashamed.

"Hey Gar, I hear congrats are in order!" Cassie calls, "Why didn't you tell us that you and Bowser are married with kids?"

Gar turns to shoot them all a quick glare before turning back to the screen, where he’s kicking Jaime's ass. "I'm famous, Cassie! I wanted to protect my husband and children from the stress of the limelight and the paparazzi. I was trying to keep it a secret,  _ Bart _ ."

"What was I supposed to do? Keep letting you lie to Perdita like this? She deserves an honest man, Gartholomew!"

Jaime sighs, "I'm disappointed in you, Gar. Very disappointed."

"If I were you, I'd be more worried about how badly I was getting beaten at Smash Bros," he grumbles.

Bart has fallen silent. He's smiling, basking in the chaos he's instigated, letting it take on a life of its own. Suddenly, he's shifting in his seat, his legs coming up, and Ed thinks for half a second that he's about to stretch out and rest his feet in Ed's lap, but they keep moving, and suddenly they're hooked over the back of the not-couch, and Bart's sitting upside down, for apparently no reason.

Brion looks at him quizzically, and Bart moves his shoulders in what Ed assumes is meant to be a shrug.

"I was getting restless?" he says, although it sounds like a question.

"So you decide to sit upside down," Brion says, brows raised, grinning a little bit.

Bart tries to shrug again, then gives up when he figures out it's not working. "Yeah. I dunno, I get fidgety sometimes."

Jaime walks over to the seat and taps Ed's shoulder. "You're up,  _ El Dorado _ ," he says, his tone teasing.

"Hey! It's a cool name," he shoots back, getting up, a little reluctant to leave his seat. "At least I'm not named after a bug."

"It's a bit braggy, is all I'm saying," Jaime says, dropping into the spot that Ed's just vacated. "I mean,  _ ‘The Golden One’ _ ? Really?"

Ed is about to retort, but Bart cuts into the conversation. "I don't know, I kinda think it fits him," he says, and then his eyes go wide and he snaps his mouth shut. Ed feels warmth blooming across his cheeks, and it looks like Bart might be turning a little pink, too, but that's probably just blood rushing to his head because he's still sitting upside down.

"Oh,  _ does _ it, Bart?" Jaime asks, with a knowing grin, and Ed can't help but feel like he's missing something as he wanders over to join Gar on the couch and, undoubtedly, suffer crushing defeat. Bart has gone silent and is looking pointedly at the ceiling, even as Cassie, Virgil, and Jaime all watch him closely, like they’re expecting something.

Whatever it is, it doesn't happen, not even when he and Gar start playing. This time, Gar is Donkey Kong - the green version, of course - and Ed considers for a minute before picking Zero Suit Samus. He figures she's strong, and probably his best shot at avoiding in-game humiliation.

As the game starts, he glances over to Bart, finds that he's watching him play, an unreadable expression on his face - although maybe Ed just can’t figure it out because he’s still upside down. When he notices that Ed is watching him back, he quickly looks away. Ed feels something in his stomach tighten at the knowledge that Bart was watching him like that.

The next time Ed glances over, he's no longer sitting. Bart has wandered over to the air hockey table and he's playing. Against himself, of course.

(He’s winning.)

That tight feeling in Ed's stomach shifts, and he's not sure whether it's better or worse now. What he does know is that he's losing much worse than usual, because his head's not in the game.

Shit.

He refocuses, and makes a decent comeback - he gets one KO, knocking Gar off the platform with three seconds left in the game.

He's still gonna get made fun of for getting his ass kicked, but hey, at least it wasn’t a shut-out.

So maybe sometimes Bart is a little distracting. He’s just got one of those personalities. It's not like it's really a problem.

Later, as Ed is beating Brion at Mario Kart, he winds up driving straight off the edge of Rainbow Road because he hears Bart laughing somewhere behind him.

But it’s fine. It's definitely, totally fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the not-couch that bart and ed sit in is called a loveseat. i thought them sitting in a loveseat was a cute idea but ed would not know that term off the top of his head. but they sit in a loveseat together. it's important to me that i mention that somewhere
> 
> thank u for reading!! i love comments and even if i dont reply to them they always make me explode of happiness. so... bookmarks, kudos, and comments are appreciated! and if u wanna talk abt these two or abt yj in general, i'm over on tumblr @artimiscrock and i'm always down to chat!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am oh, so very sorry about how long it took me to post this. I meant to post it like a week ago, but then I went out of town for a week, and then when I got home my cat was very, very sick, and she has since passed away, so it took me a little while to get back around to finishing it up. in any case, I hope you enjoy!

Ed is trying very hard to pay attention to the tutor, who is currently explaining something about physics, but he's not really tracking what she's saying.

Instead, he's watching Bart.

He doesn't even know why. Tutoring is, surprisingly, the one time that Bart is quiet. Apparently he doesn't even really need the tutoring - he's already graduated high school, according to Jaime. No one really knows why he's still doing the tutoring, but he shows up every time.

(When Ed asked him about it, his face did something a little weird and he shrugged.)

He usually brings a book or something to keep his hands busy - he still somehow pays attention to the tutor too, but even if he can be quiet, he still can't quite manage to sit still. Bart doesn't seem to have a favorite genre - today's book is some sci-fi thing that Ed can't quite make out the title of. Last time was a romance novel, and the time before that was a biography. Once, he'd brought in a quantum physics textbook and spent the whole session reading intently, brow furrowed. By the end of class, he'd read the whole thing twice.

And that - that's where the problem comes in.

Because Bart is quiet.

And yet. Ed still can't stop watching him. His eyes catch on the line of his neck, the way he smiles when the book is funny, how he frowns when he's thinking. The way he always seems to be paying just enough attention to what the tutor is saying to participate in class - providing answers when no one else can, asking questions, making the occasional quiet joke. How his hand flies when he leans over the table, sketching things that Ed can never quite see, scribbles out equations and writes notes on something that is definitely not what they're studying in class.

Bart isn't doing anything that should be distracting, so the fact that Ed is still watching him is… it doesn't make any sense. It's just -

"Hello? Earth to Ed?"

He snaps out of his thoughts to find Bart leaning in next to him, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Huh?"

"You've been staring at nothing for like, five minutes."

Oh. Yeah. He probably has been doing that.

"Sorry, I was just…" Ed starts, trailing off. Weirdly distracted by you, doesn't really seem like something he should say here, "I'm pretty tired, I guess," he finishes, weakly.

Bart grimaces sympathetically, then glances at the blank paper sitting on Ed's desk, "You wanna work together?"

Ed blinks a couple of times, his brain still lagging a little bit. "Yeah?" he says, like it's a question.

Suddenly, Bart's pulled his chair up next to Ed's and he's smiling so brightly and then he's turning his attention to the book sitting open between them. Ed's mind finally catches up to what's going on and he looks at the book too, remembering the assignment.

They're supposed to read The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton.

Their tutor thinks she's so funny.

They're supposed to be writing something about the symbolism of the book, but Ed hasn't come up with anything, because he's having a hard time focusing. Bart is a flurry of movement beside him, quickly scrawling out a page and a half, complete with quotes sourced from the book. Satisfied, he leans back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head, looking relaxed.

Ed turns back to the book, trying to focus, but he can't even pick out the words. He knows he had some idea of what he wanted to write, but he's drawing a blank.

"Hey, Ed?"

"Hmm?"

Bart grins, "Should I call you Ponyboy?"

"Don't say it," Ed says flatly, shooting him a glare.

"Get it?" Bart asks, eyes twinkling mischievously, "Because -"

"Bart, if you finish that sentence, I promise I'm going to kill you."

"Because," he continues, undeterred, "You're gold."

"Shut up."

"Because you're El Dorado."

"I hate you."

"The golden one," Bart croons, and Ed groans, picking up the book just to have something to do with his hands.

He determinedly ignores the way his heartbeat starts racing at the smile Bart is giving him.

"You're not funny," he tells Bart as he starts scribbling something about the theme of family in the book.

"You're still smiling."

Ed tries, unsuccessfully, to bite back his grin, and says "That means nothing."

"I think it means you definitely think I'm hilarious."

"I definitely don't," Ed shoots back unconvincingly, turning his eyes to the book, still open on the desk. He takes a few deep breaths, trying to get his smile under control and calm his thundering pulse.

"Sorry if I'm distracting you," Bart says, glancing over Ed's shoulder at his still mostly blank paper with a slight frown. "I can leave you alone if you want."

"No!" Ed winces at how quickly the word leaves his mouth. He's not entirely sure why the idea of Bart leaving bugs him so much. He must seem so desperate. "I mean, it's cool. I've been kinda spaced out today just like, in general. You don't have to go."

Bart bites the inside of his cheek, looking at Ed with a weird sort of intensity. Ed feels self conscious under his heavy gaze, and then Bart seems to shake it off, shrugging. "You sure?"

"Yeah. I like hanging out with you, Kid."

Bart's mouth falls open, looking… surprised? His eyes are wide and there's something soft in them that Ed's not sure he's seen before. "Yeah?" he asks, with a small smile.

"Yeah. As long as you never call me Ponyboy again," Ed replies easily.

"I'm not making any promises."

"I'll teleport you thirty feet in the air and then drop you."

"You'd have to catch me, first."

"I think I can keep up."

"Oh, can you?"

"I'm pretty sure I can."

Bart looks at him for a long moment before shrugging. "Well, even if you do, I have accelerated healing. Although I do admit, it's kinda flattering you'd go to all that trouble just for little old me."

Ed's cheeks burn, but he laughs in spite of himself. "Don't go getting an ego about it."

"Me? An ego? Never."

"I can't believe I'm friends with you," Ed groans, but he's still smiling.

"I guess my charms are just that irresistible, huh?"

Yeah, Ed doesn't say. "Never mind. I'm never speaking to you again."

"Gasp! You've broken my fragile heart, Eduardo! However will I go on?" Bart asks, flinging himself across the table dramatically, like a damsel in an old movie.

Ed snorts. "Did you really just say 'gasp' out loud? Instead of, y'know, actually gasping?"

"I'm too wounded to remember how to gasp."

"That's not a thing that happens," Ed replies, deadpan. He grabs his pencil and jabs Bart with it to get him off of the table and off of Ed's classwork.

"And now he stabs me! Cassie! Gar! Are you seeing this? He's attacking me!" Bart calls, but he sits back in his chair without a fight.

"I am one hundred percent sure you deserve it, Bart," Cassie calls back, not even glancing in their direction.

"Not you, too! I can't believe these betrayals! Gar, please, tell me you're on my side."

Gar doesn't turn around either. "Nope!"

Bart gasps. "I've been abandoned. Deserted. Forsaken by those closest to me."

"I see you've remembered how to gasp," Ed snickers, ignoring Bart's affronted glare. He returns to the paper in front of him and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Bart sit back in his seat, grabbing another book from his bag - a fantasy novel, this time - with a small smile on his face.

It takes Ed awhile, but he finishes the paper. By the time he looks up, Gar and Cassie are long gone, but Bart's still sitting next to him, book in hand.

"What time is it?"

"Hmm?" Bart glances up, startled. Before Ed can repeat himself, the words seem to catch up to him, and he checks his watch. "Like, a little after five?"

The tutor leaves at three fifteen. He's been there almost an extra two hours.

Bart is still there with him.

He's not sure what to make of that.

Bart stretches, and his shirt rides up just a bit. Ed's eyes catch on the small strip of skin that's temporarily exposed before he shakes his head, looking literally anywhere else.

"Man, I didn't realize how late it had gotten," Bart says, yawning. His stomach rumbles audibly, and he grimaces. "I really need to eat. Wanna come?"

He offers Ed his hand to help him up from his seat, and Ed stares at it for a moment before remembering he'd been asked a question.

"Uhh.. Yeah, sure?" he says, taking the offered hand and standing up. He's not sure why it came out like a question.

Bart smiles at him, bright and happy. "How do chicken whizzees sound?"

Ed groans. "Man, I had a bunch of those yesterday. I do know a really good taco truck nearby though. You in?"

"Lead the way," he replies, letting go of the hand Ed hadn't realized he was still holding to gesture expansively, bowing his head.

Ed starts walking, Bart falling into step with him, talking animatedly about the book he'd been reading. Ed bites his lip against the smile that threatens to take over his face and guides him to the truck.

Ed orders two tacos, and Bart gets a truly appalling amount of food. They wander over to a railing looking out over the ocean to eat. The view is really nice.

Bart shovels his food into his face disgustingly fast.

Somehow, though, Ed's not as grossed out as he should be. In fact, this might actually be one of the best nights he's had in awhile. He looks back out at the ocean with a contented smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for those of you who have never read the novel The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, there's a character named Ponyboy, who is told to stay gold. and since Ed is El Dorado, that seems like a fun joke to make. 
> 
> the book also has strong homoerotic undertones (which was unintentional and the author is very vexed by people pointing that out, something i find endlessly amusing). between that stuff and the title of the book being the outsiders, it seemed a perfect fit to include here. that's really all you need to know about the book to get the joke.
> 
> anyways i hope you enjoyed, sorry once again for the delay, and please leave comments as they make me very happy and definitely help motivate me to write more

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't done writing with like, proper format in awhile, so please be gentle. i'd love if u like comments, or, if u want, u can come talk to me on tumblr @artimiscrock!


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